I ran my first half marathon today. Actually it was my first race of any kind. I really only started running about a month and a half ago. I went to the marathon expecting to run somewhere between 2 hours 30 minutes, and 3 hours. My main goal was to finish. I ended up finishing with a time of 2 hours 21 minutes and 16 seconds!
I got out of bed at 5:30am and started getting ready. This being my first race, I didn’t really know what to expect. I took a fanny pack stuffed with fun size Snickers Bars, a hat, my mp3 player. My wife helped me pin my number to the front of my shirt. I wore an old t-shirt that I didn’t care about over my running shirt. I considered wearing some old sweat pants, but walking outside in my shorts, it didn’t feel that cold.
I left the house at about 6:45am. I arrived at Frontier Field about 7:30am and parked. I took a shuttle over to the starting line. There were tons of people all waiting for the race to begin. There were a bunch of port-a-potties, and lines grew quickly as the race start came nearer. I found my friend who was also going to run the half marathon. She was suprised that I was going to run it. They first started the full marathon, relay marathon, and wheelchair marathon at 8:00am. The half marathon started at 8:15am. I took off my t-shirt, and stuck it off to the side. I guess Goodwill or someone can have it.
I ran along side my friend for maybe half a mile, but we were going faster then I wanted to go. I had planned on keeping my heart rate below 150 (70% Karvonen). As it was, I was having a hard enough time as it was keeping it below 158 (75% Karvonen). I told her to go on ahead, and run her pace. I slowed down and began to run/jog/walk. I saw her slowly move out of sight. I put on my mp3 headphones, and began listening to an audio book that I had made of Russel Taylor’s The Looniness Of The Long Distance Runner-An Unfit Londoner’s Attempt To Run The New York City Marathon From Scratch. Many people were passing me, but I was okay with that. I want to run my pace. I was mananging to keep my heart rate in the high 150s. My heart rate didn’t see much of the 140s during the race. I kept going. Eventually, my heart rate was going into the low 160s. Every couple of miles there were water stations. A few even Gatorade. I thought some were supposed to have GU, but I never saw any. I have read about Gu, and I wanted to try it. I got water at some, and a little Gatorade. About halfway I saw my friend ahead of me. And shortly I caught up with her. She was pluggin along doing a race-walk kind of thing. I talked to her for a few seconds, and then took off. I was completely surprised to have seen her again before the finish line. I knew that last year she had a time of around 2:24, and she is a regular runner. And I have been running less than two months.
There was woman that I was keeping keeping the approximately same pace with. I would pass her, she would pass me. We were also both taking short walking breaks (following Jeff Galloway’s advice). She said she finished the half marathon last year in around 2:22, and she expected to finish this one in pretty close to the same time. So at least I knew what pace I was on. I was getting tired, but I kept going. I had a motorcycle cop get ticked off at me. I was running down a path through a park. I head some chirping noises. I wasn’t sure where they were coming from. I heard them again. I pulled off one of my ear buds, and looked around. Apparently a wheelchair racer was coming up from behind me. I moved out of the way. I guess they get police escorts. The cop gave me a dirty look and rode on. The distance that my Polar RS200sd was giving me was less than the signs were telling me that I had covered. I still need to calibrate it though. Pretty soon I was within a mile of the finish. I kept going. Then I was coming into the stadium. I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:21:16. Yeah, I still finished low in the standings (even within age group), but then I bet that every single person that finished ahead of me has been running for more than two months!
I walked around for a while and waited for my friend to finish. She finished about 7 minutes behind me. We headed up to the food. They had apples, bagels, donut holes, cheese pizza, water, orange juice, bananas, and warm pop. They also had a bag of danishes, but they were covered with yellow jacket bees. According to my heart monitor watch I burned over 2750 calories. Wow! I ate a couple slices of pizza, a banana, 4 donut holes, and drank a bottle of orange juice. There was also a lady handing out $5 coupons for Chili’s restaurant, so I took one. We signed up for a massage, and I got my calves massaged. They felt better for a little while. I went and sat down for a bit, and we watched the first marathoners cross the finish line. After a while I limped to my car and drove home.
When I got home, I grabbed a Diet Pepsi, and climbed into a hot bath to soak for a while. Then I climbed into bed and took a long nap. My legs are sore!
One thing that has occured to me was that I ran a fast enough pace that I could maybe keep up with Dean Karnazes for one of the Endurance 50 runs. At least for half of it. I will have to investigate.
To celebrate the completion of my first half marathon, my wife and I went out for dinner, and used the $5 coupon for Chili’s. I wonder how many calories I ate? Probably less than the 2750.

Posted by Rob in Running on September 17th, 2006 |